Me Talk Pretty One Day Abridged

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Sedaris is such a master storyteller with his amazing ability to have the reader weeping and laughing from one sentence to the next sometimes. His stories relating his childhood are on one hand painfully real and hilarious. He spares no embarassment for the sake of the story, thank goodness. ;o)

Rating:
Summary: Occasionally funny but mostly just, you know, lame
Review: I don't know what it was, but through the whole book I couldn't shake the feeling that David Sedaris has no soul. Perhaps that is unfair; but it is not unfair to say his book is a soulless, vapid, trite, tired collection of essays with lame titles like "The Youth in Asia." Har har. I feel like every decent joke was something I'd heard or read somewhere else. No one's suing Sedaris for plagiarism? Where's the justice? I gave this three stars mostly because it was such a quick read that there wasn't enough time for me to get annoyed with it. I think I laughed a couple times. Not terrible for 272 pages.

Rating:
Summary: Gorgeous Essays...both beautifully written and hilarious!
Review:
ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY spends much less time in Sedaris' youth than NAKED did, with the second half of the book entirely devoted to his adventures living in Paris with his current boyfriend Hugh. The first half of the book is made up of his usual assortment of anecdotes and observations. The two pieces that open the book are among the strongest. "Go Carolina" finds the ten year old David encountering a subtle brand of homophobia in his school, where he is forced to take speech therapy to correct his "speech impediment" (read: "gay lisp"). He is pretty quick to catch on to the motivations behind these classes when, right from the beginning, his therapist questions him on his favorite sport teams, which he fakes his way through aware that "there were names for boys who didn't like sports." Especially after noting the complete absence of girls and popular boys among the therapist's students, David finds a particularly clever way to succeed in his therapy without actually succeeding. "Giant Dreams, Midget Abilities" finds him taking guitar lessons, against his will (his jazz-loving father dreams of having a musical family act despite his childrens' lack of interest or ability) from a dwarf named Mister Mancini, whom David comes to think of as a fellow outsider until Mancini clues into his homosexuality ("I'm not into that scene," he tells the bewildered kid). This story has much of the same poignancy of a similar piece in NAKED in which a black substitute teacher stands in front of the class cracking "queer" jokes, thus dispelling any of David's notions of solidarity among discriminated-against minorities. Another very funny essay entitled "Smart Guy" (page 239), is another highlight of the book. If you haven't read ANY Sedaris, ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY is an excellent place to start. The writing is fluid and slightly more sophisticated than in NAKED, each essay concluding gracefully and smartly. So pick up a copy! In addition to ME TALK PRETTY, I recommend RUNNING WITH SCISSORS by Burroughs, THE LOSERS CLUB by Richard Perez


Rating:
Summary: Quite funny, but not sidesplitting
Review: Finally I jumped on the David Sedaris bandwagon, this being the first book by him I've read. It truly is pretty funny. It's a series of essays about his wacky family, living in France, and being on the subversive side of a very straight-laced U.S.

The book cover blurbs oversold it. I read reviewers say they "screamed with laughter" or found it "sidesplitting" or "wildly entertaining." It's mildly entertaining. Don't expect to scream with laughter.

You also have to suspend your belief to some degree. Exaggeration is okay but it's probably a major part of this autobiographical book. The first half is about growing up and adult life, and the second half is about life in France. There's not a lot of continuity here: it's truly a random collection of essays.

I don't want to leave a totally negative impression. Let me tell you two of my favorite lines from the book:

"...my childhood was unspeakably dull. When I was seven years old, my family moved to North Carolina. When he was seven years old, Hugh's family moved to the Congo. We had a collie and a house cat. They had a monkey and two horses named Charlie Brown and Satan."

Another, about a speech therapy class for boys with lisps: "When asked what we wanted to be when we grew up, we hid the truth and listed who we wanted to sleep with when we grew up: `A policeman or a fireman or one of those guys who works with high-tension wires.'"

Rating:
Summary: dysfunctional family!
Review: I can't deny that this book is really funny, I got hooked from the first page reading about his speech problem but after several chapters, I lost interest, it is really hilarious to read about his family, but then the comic mood didn't satisfy me as a reader wanting more essence to his novel. It became a narration of a gay 40 something male and his wretched life, from drugs, failure in school, living in Paris with his boyfriend and really nothing substantial. Even when he talks about his family and how weird they are, you laugh hard, but then he leaves it as an open window for you to comment. You wonder what made him lead such a life, his parents? the way he grew up?

The writing is easy and smooth. You feel sometimes as if he is actually talking to you which makes it a fun read.